Israel Active

Savvy Israeli designers have spotted a marketing opportunity – trendy face masks. They have stopped producing expensive wedding dresses that are inappropriate for low-key events. But the elegant masks are very popular with the public who prefer to feel fabric rather than paper against their face.

CTech has produced a list of Israel’s 50 most promising startups that they believe will survive and thrive despite the coronavirus turmoil. They cover Deep tech, Entertainment & media, Unicorns, Logistics & e-Commerce, Cyber & cybersecurity, and Medical technology.

Israel’s Camtek, manufacturer of metrology and inspection equipment, has received an $8 million order for multiple EagleT-i systems, its advanced inspection system. The purchaser, a tier-one global CMOS Image Sensor manufacturer, highlights strong market demand for Camtek’s products.

In this week’s investments, code developer raised ; air-cleaning raised ; (facial recognition ) raised , and digital microscope maker raised .

Israel’s Energy Ministry has proposed a NIS 25 billion raft of mainly privately funded energy and infrastructure projects to help kickstart the post-coronavirus economy. At least half the projects would involve increasing power from renewable sources.

The Israel government has granted NIS 10 million to 84 research projects to combat COVID-19.  18 of these grants (20%) were awarded to projects of the University of Haifa.

Amazingly, Fitch Ratings has affirmed Israel's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) at 'A+' with a stable outlook. It highlights strong external finances, a diversified high value-added economy and solid institutional strength. It projects a rebound in 2021, with GDP growing by 5%.

Israel’s Migal Galilee Research Institute is now MigVax Corp and has just received $12 million of funds, led by Ourcrowd. MigVax is developing a safe, oral vaccine with 3 levels of protection. It will be easy to scale up and can be adjusted for other coronavirus strains.

Good news for Israeli nationals. British Airways and Wizz are shortly resuming their London to Tel Aviv flights. Air Canada is restarting from Toronto and Montreal and Delta is resuming from New York. United Airlines is upgrading its New York service and restarting from San Francisco.

Multinational retailer IKEA has re-opened its stores in Netanya, Tel Aviv Port and Rishon LeZion as part of Israel’s slow return to normality. IKEA will observe the latest Ministry of Health regulations, including social distancing, wearing of masks, maintaining hygiene and frequent cleaning.